


Rainbows & Robots

by BurntHoneyy



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, Professor Keith, Student Shiro, TA Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 04:08:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13450224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BurntHoneyy/pseuds/BurntHoneyy
Summary: Keith is a teacher's assistant at the college Shiro attends and once a video featuring the two of them lands them in the Dean's office, confessions are made with hopes of reciprocation.





	Rainbows & Robots

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stellarparallax](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarparallax/gifts).



> This is a birthday present for someone I am so happy to call my friend and mother bird, Parisa! Thank you for always being there to talk to. I love you so much and I hope you have an amazing birthday! -throws confetti-
> 
> Please checkout her work [here](http://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarparallax)!
> 
> Big thank you to [Kitten](http://mothmanwingman.tumblr.com/) for being my beta as well!
> 
> Comments/kudos are much appreciated! Thank you for reading x

“He’s staring at you again.”

Keith didn’t look up from the paper he was reading through. “Who?”

“Takashi.”

“I think he goes by Shiro, but your nickname is going to be Drop Out if you don’t stop using so many run-on sentences.” Keith looked up from Lance’s essay to see him gazing off in the distance. “Hey, did you hear me? This sentence has, like, a hundred words in it.”

Keith snapped his fingers in front of the student’s face, finally catching his attention. Lance groaned but took the paper back.

“It does not.”

“Count them then.”

“I thought you were supposed to helping me.”

Keith didn’t respond, lifting an eyebrow when Lance looked up from Keith’s pen marks. The student muttered something in Spanish under his breath but started counting the words. Musing over Lance's words, Keith had to admit that he felt eyes watching him since the two of them sat down at the cafe.

The teacher’s assistant continued ignoring it, standing up to take off his jacket. He realized that they were probably going to be there for a while longer and he didn't want to die of heatstroke. It was fall outside, making it almost unbearable inside the cafe as the heat was cranked up as high as the corporate office allowed. 

Keith tried to keep his arms covered as much as possible while on campus. He loved his tattoos but they always brought him a lot of attention, and the occasional unwanted comment.

“There’s only seventy-one, not a hundred.”

Keith scoffed. “Seventy-one still isn’t good.”

“Well, it’s better than a hundred.” Lance countered, folding his arms.

“You’re not wrong…” Keith started, choosing his words carefully. “...but you still need to work on it. I want you to rewrite it into at least four sentences.”

Surprisingly, Lance didn’t complain as he picked up his pencil and followed Keith’s instruction. Keith took a long swig of his coffee, eyes moving to his phone when it dinged.

**_Mustache_ **

_I’m running late could u start class w going over the quiz from yesterday please?_

Keith texted the professor back just as Lance was sliding his paper across the table. The student tried to get Keith’s attention by moving it back and forth, hitting the teacher's assistant’s free hand repeatedly until he snatched it. Lance let his head hit the table, yawning loudly as Keith read through the new sentences.

The TA covered his mouth when he yawned as well, narrowing his eyes at Lance when he laughed. Keith ignored his comments and mumbled praise about the new sentences.

It took them the remainder of Lance’s lunch period to finish going through his paper. After, Keith informed the student he would bump the assignment’s grade from a B to an A because of how hard Lance had been working on it. He almost regretted it because Lance immediately came to his side of the booth to hug him and Keith struggled to keep him at bay.

Once Lance had left, Keith finished his coffee before gathering his things to store in his messenger bag. His thoughts circled back to the quizzes which Coran had mentioned, frowning when he realized they hadn’t been graded yet. And if Keith was being honest with himself, he really didn’t feel like doing it. But he also didn’t trust certain students to grade their own quiz honestly.

Keith pulled on his jacket and was slipping his bag over his shoulder when he saw him. Shiro was sitting at a booth across from a student Keith didn’t recognize, but they were both staring at him. The TA raised an eyebrow which had them both looking back at their laptops, faces flushed. Keith made sure he hadn’t left anything on the table before leaving the cafe, trying to think of the laziest way to grade those damn quizzes.

 

 

“He thinks I’m a creep now.”

“Well, you _have_ been staring at the back of his head the entire time.” Ulaz started to type away on his laptop but looked back up to see Shiro’s pained expression. “Why don’t you just ask him to help you?”

“You’ve read the notes he’s left on my homework. He probably hates me.”

“Probably not you as a person, but your writing, yes, that is quite terrible.” Ulaz teased, looking back to his laptop. “He’s a TA, Shiro. If you ask him for help, he wouldn’t say no. It’s his job.”

Shiro groaned but agreed with his roommate’s reasoning. It was ridiculous to think that Mr. Kogane- or rather, Keith- hated him. Professor Coran had called him the former on the first day of class but Keith made a disgusted face, requesting to go by his first name. His reaction left a few students laughing, but Shiro was left lovestruck.

Even more so the first time he saw those tattoos. They were incredibly vibrant, all colors of the rainbow distributed equally throughout his entire left arm. Shiro had never gotten close enough to determine what exactly it consisted of but he could tell even from a distance it was very detailed and must have taken a lot of time. There was only a black outline of a lion on his right bicep, which Shiro noticed was still covered in saran wrap when Keith removed his jacket in the cafe earlier.

“C’mon, heart-eyes. We’re going to be late.”

Shiro blinked back to reality, heat rushing to his cheeks. The student closed his laptop and the two were out the door moments later. They made small talk before eventually parting ways, Ulaz heading to Psychology and Shiro making his way to the main building.  

He checked the time on his phone and even though he was late, didn’t rush himself. Ever since Professor Coran designated Keith to take attendance, tardiness was handled a bit differently. Rather than a five minute grace period, the TA extended it to fifteen and would write his nickname for the student on the whiteboard behind his desk. Once a student’s name was on the board three times, the grace period for the class shrunk by five minutes.

Shiro couldn’t help but grow nervous at what name Keith would write for him, seeing as he had never been late before. The student walked into the English classroom and saw Keith standing in front of his desk, leaning back against it with his arms folded. His jacket was off and Shiro tried not to stare at the tattooed art on the piece of art himself.

Shiro could have sworn Keith smiled ever so slightly at his appearance but the student quickly made his way to a seat at the front. He noticed the projector was on and the answer sheet for yesterday’s pop quiz was on display, as Keith approached him and placed a paper on his desk.

He mumbled a thank you when he realized it was his own quiz then searched for a pen from his backpack he had let fall to the floor by the desk. Shiro felt his breath catch in his throat when the familiar sound of a marker on a whiteboard entered his ears. The student moved his eyes to where Keith was writing, blushing further as Keith continued to a second line for whatever nickname the TA decided to bestow upon him.

There was muffled laughter behind Shiro and it only grew a bit louder when Keith pulled away, capping the marker and ‘Mr. Robot Arm Who Likes To Stare At People In Cafes’ was now on the board for the remainder of the month. Keith surprised Shiro by smiling at him after he turned around and when the student saw there was absolutely no hatred or ill-intent by the nickname, he returned the expression.

“We’re correcting the pop quiz from yesterday, and have so far only gone over the first two answers,” Keith leaned back against his desk again. “...which are on the board. Lance, put your phone away.”

“Sorry!” was shouted from the back row, and Shiro allowed himself to relax as the attention slowly dissolved off of him.

 

 

“Shiro, can you stay please?”

“Don’t you mean Mr. Ro-”

“Lance, would you like to keep an A on that paper?”

Keith heard the student rush out of the classroom and when the TA looked up, Shiro was standing nervously in front of his desk. Keith peered around him and when he spotted some stragglers, decided to make small talk until they left. He motioned for Shiro to take a seat as he finished sending an email to a colleague.

“You have a free period right now, yeah?”

“Yes, sir- fuck, uh, sorry- _sorry_!”

Keith couldn’t contain the laugh that left him, and moved his attention to the stack of papers next to his keyboard. “It’s alright. You’re ex-military?”

“Yeah.”

Keith waited until the final student was out of the room before he addressed his main concern, turning in his chair to face Shiro. “I wasn’t too mean with the robot thing, was I?”

“No, it’s alright.” Shiro smiled.

“Okay, good. I really don’t need another Lotor incident...” Keith rolled his chair closer when he found the student’s essay, placing it in front of him. “Do you have time to go over this with me?”

Even though he seemed a little nervous, Shiro nodded. The paper was covered in blue corrections so Keith understood if he was a bit hesitant. Especially since they have never spoken one on one before.

Keith said goodbye to Coran as he left the classroom, closing the door behind him. The TA then started to explain his corrections to Shiro and made sure that the student actually understood each one before moving on to the next.

Keith knew Shiro was smart and he could easily be his favorite student, if Keith’s eyes didn’t bleed every time he graded his assignments. Shiro was always taking notes and was never on his phone. The TA even considered creating a seating chart just so he could place him by Lance to see if his good behavior rubbed off on the younger student.

Keith just couldn’t figure out why he had never asked for help.

“I want you to retype this and email me if you get stuck on anything. You can keep this one as a reference, I won’t enter a grade for it yet.”

“Wow, um… thank you.” Shiro’s eyes widened and Keith couldn’t help chuckling.

“Yeah, no problem. And I would have done the same with your earlier assignments had you came to me for help.” Keith teased, rolling back over to his computer.

“Yeah… too busy staring.” Shiro joked, and Keith smiled.

“Uh-huh.” He leaned back in his chair, turning to face Shiro again. “Just send me the document when you finish it, you don’t need to reprint it.”

“Okay, thanks. When, uh, when would you want it by?”

“Whenever.” Keith shrugged.

“Oh, alright.” Shiro said, standing up and slinging his backpack over his shoulder. “Uh, thanks again for the help, Keith.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Robot-Arm.”

 

 

_Can you tell me if this makes sense?_

Shiro sent an email to Keith with an excerpt from the most recent paragraph he had retyped. It was Thursday night and Shiro had just returned home from work. He’d been working on re-doing the assignment since Keith spoke with him on Monday, and wanted to turn it in before the weekend. It was almost midnight so Shiro didn’t expect to get a response, leaving his desk to brush his teeth before heading to bed.

When Shiro returned, there was a reply waiting for him.

 _It, does, but, commas, are, your, friend. Don’t, abuse, them._ _  
_ _\- Sent from my iPhone_

Shiro found himself smiling through the blush on his cheeks.

_Oh, thank you._

The student immediately re-opened the document and applied Keith’s advice to the section he’d sent. When he finished, a yawn escaped him so he decided to leave any final touches for the following day. Before closing his laptop, Shiro checked once more to see if Keith had any final words for him.

_Lol_

_\- Sent from my iPhone_

The student smiled again, knowing he was head over heels for this man. Keith probably had no clue how hard he’d fallen for him. Keith was beautiful, smart, funny. Sometimes he came off a bit harsh but Shiro never got the impression it was intentional.

Shiro tried not to think about how it wouldn’t work out between them, if by some miracle it was revealed that the TA felt the same way. Teacher and student relationships had to remain strictly professional, and Shiro was certain that included TA’s as well. Regardless, he could continue to admire at a distance.

Shiro’s classes didn’t start until 10am on Fridays, but he still woke up at his regular time so he could go to the gym beforehand. He hadn’t been able to go as much as he’d like ever since picking up his part time job, but any workout was better than no workout. It also gave the student a chance to study the TA further.

He hadn’t been trying to find Keith’s gym on purpose. But when he saw a familiar red car in the parking lot, he figured it wouldn’t be too weird. The gym was so close to campus that Shiro could walk there. And he had been considering switching gyms anyway.

Walking into the building that morning, Shiro first headed to the treadmills. He didn’t know if Keith ever noticed his presence or not. The student put in his earphones, trying not to make it too obvious that he was watching a certain black-haired man across the room.

The TA had his hair tied back but some strands were still sticking to the sweat on his face. His muscle tank had his tattoos on full display and when he turned just so, Shiro had the perfect view of a toned stomach. Keith was sweaty, so he must have been here for a while as Shiro noticed how damp the front and back of his shirt was.

The student immediately looked down at his phone to finally pick a song to play when Keith started looking around the room, as if he’d felt someone’s eyes on him.

 

 

Keith had to fight the smile that wanted to grow on his face, coughing into his arm to hide a laugh. Shiro was over by the treadmills, looking down at his phone. He debated going over to bug him but the student started to run, and Keith didn’t want to distract him.

Keith was surprised that he hadn’t noticed Shiro at his gym before. The TA had been going ever since he moved closer to campus and seeing as this was Shiro’s first year, it would make sense that he just started showing up recently.

As Keith made his way into the locker room to shower, he reminded himself that his only commitment for the day was an English class. Ironically, it was the same one Shiro attended. The student had emailed him last night and Keith had almost asked why the other was awake so late, but if Shiro was here, the student probably didn’t have any early classes himself.

Keith showered and dried off quickly. He preferred to do so at home but he was meeting Hunk for coffee and had hit snooze a few too many times that morning, which meant he got the luxury of trying to pretend he didn't feel the stares thrown his way. Keith was shoving his sweaty, smelly clothes into his duffel bag when a voice spoke a few lockers to his left.

“Hey, I like your tattoos.”

“Thanks,” Keith replied, not looking over.

“It’s, uh, a lot of color.”

Keith closed the locker, throwing the duffel bag over his shoulder. “Mhmm.”

He ignored whatever comment the stranger made under his breath, heading for the door of the men’s locker room. It didn’t happen often but once in a while, someone would try to chat him up about his tattoos. To say it was annoying would be an understatement. In any other setting, Keith was fine with appeasing their attempt at flirting but in a gym locker room? That just sounds like a corny porn intro.

Keith found the thought amusing, disguising his laugh as a cough and got into his car. 

It was almost 9:30am when Keith pulled up to the cafe, thankfully they weren’t meeting at the campus location. It wasn’t that he was embarrassed to be seen with Hunk, not at all. Keith just wanted to avoid having his students know his roommate was a fairly popular food blogger. Or vlogger. Whatever the term they used now was.

Keith made his way over to the booth Hunk was sitting at, noticing his small camera facing the empty seat. Keith was fine being in videos. It would have been ridiculously hard for Hunk to avoid recording him seeing as they lived together.

“Hey,” Keith took off his jacket before sitting down.

“Hey! I already ordered. I got you a caramel macchiato.”

“Thanks.”

Hunk pushed a button on the camera before moving his phone in front of Keith. “Have you seen this?”

Keith frowned at the paused Instagram video when he saw it was posted by Lance. He rolled his eyes at the caption and made to push the phone back across the table.

“You should look at the comments after watching it.”

Keith was caught off guard by Hunk’s semi-serious tone but he couldn’t question him about it, as the barista had just called his name for their drinks. Keith let out a small sigh before bringing his attention back to the video, captioned ‘I took a vid every time I saw Robot Arm smile at Rainbow Arm’ with several heart emojis following it.

It was almost a full minute of Shiro staring at Keith, day after day as he walked past the student. Keith felt butterflies in his stomach as he focused on the look on Shiro’s face. How long has Shiro been looking at him like that? And he’d never noticed?

When the video ended, Keith felt nervous as he saw there were close to a hundred comments. As he loaded them, he saw how most of them were telling Lance to take it down. Keith reached the beginning and there were more of the same comments but Lance had replied to them stating he received Shiro’s permission to post it in the first place.

Keith almost felt bad for Lance at receiving all the backlash he was getting, and having to inform each request with the same message as before. The TA then stopped scrolling, interested piqued when he saw a comment from Shiro himself.

 **_Shikashi_tagane_ ** _Hey, everyone. Thank you for the concern but I’m 100% okay with Lance keeping this up. I’m sure I'm not the only one who looks at Rainbow Arm like that :)_

Lance had replied with a thank you and plethora of heart emojis and when Keith finished going through the comments, he noticed Hunk was seated across from him, smiling. Keith pushed the phone back to its owner, reaching for his coffee as he ignored the heat flooding his cheeks.

“I told you he liked you.”

“How did you even find it?” Keith asked, trying to take the attention off himself.

“Uh.. well… Lance and I are friends.”

Keith could only blink, no longer feeling embarrassed on his part. Hunk looked incredibly guilty, twiddling his thumbs as he gave Keith a small but apologetic smile. It wasn’t that Keith hated Lance, but he highly doubted the extroverted student would keep his mouth shut if he saw Keith in one of Hunk’s videos.

“And how did this happen?”

“He sent me a DM on twitter and has been following me for, like, _years_. So he’s seen you in a lot of my stuff and I asked him not to tell anyone, and he said he hasn’t. He’s really cool.”

Keith rolled his eyes, snorting. “You’re dating him, aren’t you?”

Keith received his answer in the form of Hunk almost spitting out his coffee, blushing furiously as Keith hid his laughter behind a gloved hand.

 

 

“Have a seat, please.”

Shiro’s hands were sweaty and he fought to keep his cool as Keith sat in the chair next to him in the Dean’s office. Ms. Altea closed the door behind her before taking a seat behind her desk. Shiro saw how relaxed Keith was with his ankle crossed over the opposite leg’s knee, but looked back to Allura when she began speaking.

“A video on social media has been brought to my attention. Are you both aware of this video?”

“If you’re punishing anyone, it should be Lance.” Keith spoke up, Shiro too nervous to do so himself.

“Mr. Kogane, please allow me to finish. I’ve already spoken with Mr. McClain and he has removed the video. Neither of you will be facing repercussions from this, but please try to keep your relationship out of the school environment.”

Shiro blinked, then dared to look at Keith who returned the same confused expression. It wasn’t long before Allura continued.

“If Keith were to receive a teaching position next school year, Shiro, you would need to have a different teacher. Otherwise, your relationship would be allowed since it was established before the said teaching position.”

Shiro didn’t think he could be blushing any harder. “We-we aren’t-”

“Babe, she said it’s okay. We don’t have to pretend anymore.”

Shiro looked at Keith who was smiling wide, mischief in his eyes. Shiro knew his heart would explode if Keith kept looking at him like that so he forced himself to glance away.

“Thank you, Allura.” Keith said, turning back to the Dean as well. “I guess I’m just too beautiful for him to keep his eyes off me.”

Shiro didn’t say anything, forcing a convincing smile at Allura when she looked back at him. They quickly wrapped up the conversation and seeing as the lunch period had just ended, both of them made their way to the English classroom.

In total silence.

Whenever Shiro sneaked a glance at Keith, he was still wearing the same mischievous smile he had earlier when they left Allura’s office. Shiro still couldn’t believe it actually happened. Keith finally found out how creepy he’d been, and responded by pretending that they were dating? Was Keith trying to embarrass him? He didn’t seem like that kind of person, but then again, Shiro didn’t really know him at all.

“Hey, Earth to Robot Arm. You still with me?”

Shiro blinked, blushing when he saw they had reached the classroom. Keith was holding the door open for him with a small smile still on his face.

“Sorry, what did you say?” Shiro asked, walking into the classroom.

Keith closed the door behind him. “I asked if my boyfriend would like to get dinner with me tonight.”

Shiro’s eyes widened, and his heart all but jumped out of his chest. Keith walked him backwards so Shiro’s back hit the wall next to the door. Keith was smirking, arms on either side of the student to prevent his escape. It was incredibly cute, as Shiro was taller than Keith. And here he was, trapped between him and the wall.

“B-boyfriend?” was all Shiro could get out, mind turned to mush.

Keith’s smile grew. “Yeah. If you’re fine with that.”

Shiro nodded so fast he could have swore he had gotten whiplash. When Keith leaned up to kiss him, Shiro panicked. He went wide-eyed and turned his head away, heat flushing his face.

“I-I’m sorry. Um… is this real? Like you actually… you actually like me?”

Keith took Shiro’s hands in his, intertwining their fingers together. Shiro’s worry disappeared as Keith displayed nothing but patience as he stared up at him. The smile was still glued on his face, eyes gentle and full of admiration.

“Yes, I _actually_ like you. I guess it just took me a while to realize it.”

Keith moved forward so their bodies were pressed together. It wasn’t sexual in the slightest, and Keith released Shiro’s hands to wrap his arms around Shiro’s waist as he continued looking up at him.

“Is it okay if I kiss you now?”

Keith’s request was quiet but Shiro nodded, trying to calm his heart. Shiro closed his eyes as Keith moved in and when their lips touched, Shiro melted. The student moved his arms around Keith’s smaller frame to pull their bodies closer. The two mended together perfectly like they were made for one another.

Shiro’s hands went to Keith’s hips and their mouths didn’t separate as Shiro lifted Keith, who locked his legs around Shiro’s waist. The student flipped their position and pressed Keith against the wall. When the two finally pulled away for air, they were both breathing heavily. Keith moved his hands to hold Shiro’s face, lost in the other’s eyes. The student was shocked that he had identified the color incorrectly for so long. From afar, it always appeared to be a dark brown but upon closer inspection, they were a deep purple, a galaxy full of happiness, excitement, and… love?

As if it were even possible, Shiro felt his cheeks grow warmer in Keith’s hands at the thought. It was much too soon for any such confessions, Shiro decided as Keith pulled him in for another kiss.

But Keith said those three small words first, only a month later.


End file.
